In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, I, the inventor, typically hybridize a large number of peach, nectarine, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. I also grow a lesser number of open pollinated seeds of each of these fruits, usually to capture recessive traits. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of peach tree, which has been denominated varietally as ‘June Time’.
In the spring of 2003 I gathered open pollinated fruit from various unnamed peach seedlings that were located in our experimental orchard located near Le Grand, Calif., in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). I removed the seeds from the fruit, stratified them, germinated them, grew them as a group of seedlings on their own root in my greenhouse, and upon reaching dormancy transplanted them to a cultivated area of this experimental orchard with the label ‘YP (OP).’ During the fruit evaluation season of 2007 I selected the present variety as a single tree from the group of seedlings described above. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of peach tree, I asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting in the experimental orchard described above, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects. The reproduction of the variety included the use of ‘Nemaguard’ (unpatented) rootstock upon which the present variety was compatible and true to type.
The present variety is most similar to ‘Crown Princess’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,070) peach by producing peaches that are yellow in flesh color, non-melting in texture, and globose in shape, but is distinguished therefrom by requiring less chilling hours, by being more productive, by having reniform instead of globose leaf glands, and by producing fruit that is larger in size, darker red in skin color, that has a sweet instead of bitter kernel, that has a more traditional peach flavor, and that matures about five days later.